


Under Your Skin

by TheWritingGiant



Series: Upstead Whump [2]
Category: Chicago PD (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-28
Updated: 2020-11-28
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:55:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27764842
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheWritingGiant/pseuds/TheWritingGiant
Summary: After closing a case something gets under Jay's skin and he needs Hailey's help to sort it out.
Relationships: Jay Halstead/Hailey Upton
Series: Upstead Whump [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2016962
Comments: 3
Kudos: 78





	Under Your Skin

**Author's Note:**

> Hey all here is part two of my Upstead whump series, I've got a couple more in the pipeline, but if there's a specific scenario you'd like to see don't hesitate to prompt it in the comments. Enjoy!

Sometimes it was difficult for Jay to think of a bright side to growing up in Canaryville. No matter what Adam said about growing old where you grew up, Jay was glad he got out of the neighbourhood. Whenever he was pressed for an answer, his go-to response was that at least he knew the alleyways, all the places a suspect was likely to try and squirrel down if given half the chance. Like the one, he was running down now chasing Jimmy O'Shea. That's the thing he hated most about having grown up here; he now knew a lot of Canaryville's criminals on a personal level. He and Jimmy had known each other since kindergarten. They played on the same little league team, went to each other's birthday parties and had epic snowball fights in the winter. Hell people used to think that Jimmy was Will's brother rather than Jay because they shared the same red hair. Now Jay was chasing his old friend through the all too familiar streets that made up the entire world during his youth.

While Jay left the neighbourhood and became a cop, Jimmy had gone the other direction. A few possession and couple of minor assault charges on his record had been the worst of it for years. But then, a new gang had tapped him to be one of their enforcers. They dubbed themselves the Wild Boys, and they'd dropped five bodies in the last two week in an attempt to gain control of the streets.

Hailey and Jay were sent to bring Jimmy in, hoping to bank on the childhood friendship the two men once shared. They spotted coming out of convenience store, Jay hopped out truck hoping for an easy conversation, but Jimmy took off as so as he saw Jay. Jimmy always was a quick bastard. Jay chucked Hailey the keys to his truck and raced after his old friend.

"Hailey," he shouted into his radio as he gained on the redhead. "Head to Root street, that's where he's going pop out."

"Copy," his partner's voice crackled over the line. "Less than a minute out."

"Come on, Jimmy," Jay huffed. "I know streets well as you do. There's nowhere to run."

Jay picked up the pace. He was only a couple of yards away, when Jimmy, desperate to slow the detective down, tipped some shipping pallets a business had stacked up out the alley onto him. Jay batted them away before they could topple onto him. His anger at nearly being crushed seemed to give him the gave extra jolt he needed, and Jay lunged forward, tackling his old friend to the ground. They wrestled for a minute, the redheaded man trying to wriggle free, but Jay was stronger. "Turn over Jimmy."

"Get off me, man," he twisted in Jay's hold.

"Jay," the detective looked up and saw his partner at the end of the alleyway. "You good?"

"Yeah," he groaned, finally getting Jimmy's arms behind his back. "I'm fine; you got cuffs?"

The blonde helped him secure Jimmy while he radioed to patrol for pick up. Jay wasn't even aware that something was wrong until after they watched Jimmy be loaded into a squad car and taken to the district. He meant to gently smack Hailey's shoulder, have her return his keys, but the second his hand brushed her arm pain erupted through it, and Jay let out a cry of shock.

"What's wrong?" Hailey looked over at him, her eyes scanning for trouble.

He looked down at his right hand and saw it. In the side of his hand, just before his pinky finger met his palm, was a dark splinter. It wasn't the kind of sliver that gave kids a good, sharp shock as they ran barefoot down a dock on a summers day. This one was long, an inch and a half at least, and thick, it looked like he'd shoved a toothpick through his skin. He held it up for Hailey to see.

"How the hell did that happen?" 

"Jimmy," he winced as he tried to flex his hand. "He dumped some wooden flats onto me; it must have happened when I blocked them."

"You okay?"

"Yeah," he nodded. "It just hurts, I can't really bend my finger."

"Got a first aid kit the truck?" She asked, moving to the vehicle. "I think we're going to need tweezers to get that thing out."

Jay shook his head. "I took it out this morning to restock it. It's still on my desk."

Hailey drove them back to the district and marched him upstairs to the locker room. "Sit," she directed him to the bench and grabbed the kit off the wall. She sat facing him as she dug through the white box.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"Looking for the tweezers," she answered, without looking up. "We've got take that thing out; it could get infected. I know they're in here some - got 'em." she pulled the forceps from the box and held her hand out for his.

Jay shook his head. "I can do it myself, thanks, Hailey."

She arched an eyebrow at him. "You're really gonna go digging around in your own hand with a pair sharp tweezers? Jay, you can't even get a booster shot without someone holding you down."

He glared at her teasing and took tweezers from her without another word. Hailey watched as Jay twisted his hand this way and that, trying to find the best angle with the least amount of pain to reach the splinter and fumbled with the tweezers in his left hand. As a lefty herself, she was used to having to use her non-dominant hand for things, she didn't really have a choice, but that wasn't the case for her very right-handed partner. As she watched him jump in pain for the fifth time, missing the sliver completely and digging the tines into the flesh of his hand, she held out her own. She beckoned for the tweezers with a crook of her fingers; Jay passed the metal instrument over with a frown. "Shut up."

"I didn't say anything," Hailey defended, but she knew the smirk on her face gave her away. 

"I can hear you thinking it."

She shrugged shoulder innocently. "Let me get a better look this thing."

Jay held his hand up in front of her, and she looked at the jagged piece wood, it was sunk deep beneath the top layers of skin.

"Ow, ow, ow," she looked up her partner. His green eyes were squeezed shut tight, his shoulders were shrugged up to his ears, and his mouth was twisted in a painful grimace.

"Jay," Hailey frowned. "I haven't even touched it yet."

He cracked an eye open and pulled his hand back. "I was practising?"

"I can call your brother," she threatened. "Ooh, or Maggie, that'd be fun to watch." Jay gave her his hand again at once, a sheepish look on his face. "Yeah, that's what I thought."

He watched as Hailey set her foot on the bench and rested his hand on her knee for support. She tucked a strand of hair behind her and studied splinter like did case notes; intense, focused and determined. He always liked to watch her as her mind sort through a puzzling case. Apparently, it was no different now. "Ow," he snapped back reality as a sharp pain ran through his hand.

"Sorry," Hailey winced in sympathy. "It's really in there deep. Do you want me to stop? We can call Will." It wasn't a joke this time.

Jay shook his head. He really didn't want to call his brother for this, he would never live it down if they did. He gripped the underside of the bench and gave his partner a nod. "Keep going."

It took a couple of minutes and more than a few yelps from Jay, but finally, Hailey was able to pull the chunk of wood free. She checked his hand quickly, looking for any thin flecks of wood, but she couldn't see anything. "I'm pretty sure I got it all."

"It still feels like it's in there," Jay looked at the wound himself. The skin was raised up and pale like a drained blister, but there wasn't any blood, so small mercies at least.

Hailey held the chunk of wood up between them. "I'm not surprised. This sucker's no joke." She got up off of the bench to throw it away.

"Hey," Jay called to her retreating back. "Aren't you forgetting something?"

"Band-aids are in the box, Halstead."

"You mean you aren't going to kiss it better?"

Hailey's head whipped up, but she didn't turn around. She could see him in the mirror, a teasing smile on his face, as a blush crept up her own. No, it wasn't teasing, it was flirting. It was something that had been happening more and more since her return from New York. During their banter on the way to a scene. As they did their thing that worked at the end of a long day. At Molly's with the team. Somewhere along the way, the tone of it all had shifted from easy and playful to something more. They both knew it, but neither of them acknowledged it; probably because they were too afraid. There was too much to lose, especially if things didn't work out. So for Jay to be so openly flirtatious after months of toeing the line, it threw her.

She saw the grin slowly fall from his face as she stayed rooted to the spot, not saying anything. When his shoulders slumped, and he started to dig through the box, dejectedly, she finally snapped out of it. Hailey approached as quietly as she could and dropped a soft kiss to his cheek. "Better?"

Jay looked up at her, a small grin on his face lighting up his entire face. "A little."

Hailey hummed in acknowledgement and then gently pressed her lips to his. "How 'bout now?" she whispered when she pulled away, her forehead resting against his.

"Much better," he craned his neck and pecked the tip of her nose, she wrinkled it under his lips and shook her head. He was such a dork.

"Good," she straightened up and pulled on Jay's arm. "Come on, Molly's is on me tonight."

Jay got up from the bench and threaded their fingers together as Hailey up tugged him out the door. If their teammates noticed the new dynamic between the partners at the bar that night, they said nothing of it. But as Hailey and Jay left the bar together a few rounds later, neither noticed the money that was begrudgingly passed over to a grinning Kevin.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading.


End file.
